Ghost Stories (ON HOLD)
by Llama Kingdom Entertainment
Summary: When a young girl is killed outside of Fredbear's Family Diner, the owner is forced to sell the restaurant to a company corrupted by power and greed. Now the girl must find her way in an afterlife where she doesn't belong. All the while, her murderer roams free and there are few who can even begin to try and stop him. (1979-1983)
1. Prologue: A Night in the Rain

Fredbear's Family Diner: a small, family owned restaurant known for its amazing pizza pies and top-notch entertainment. That night, children were playing and having fun with the resident animatronic, Fredbear. Outside the restaurant, however, a young girl was lying on the ground, dying in the rain.

It wasn't her fault of course. Not in any way shape or form, yet that terrible fate befell her nonetheless. She had been standing outside of the diner, watching Fredbear. The staff would often let her in to play with him because he was her friend, but that night, they couldn't. The orders from the manager were clear. She wasn't to be let in during birthday parties or other major events. So she was turned away with the excuse that Fredbear was occupied with his duties, concerned looks on the faces of the staff members as they shut the door on her. She was just a little kid with an imaginary friend after all. What harm could she possibly do? But they still left her to freeze in the beginnings of a rainfall and watch her friend hand out slices of cake to greedy little party guests.

Little did she know that, while she was watching Fredbear, someone else was doing some watching of his own. In a rather conspicuous purple car parked in the parking lot, an employee of that very diner sat, having a rather heated argument with his "conscience." That was only to distract said conscience, though. In reality, he was merely waiting for the right moment to strike. He didn't have anything against her; she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just like so many others. He took a second to put down the knife he had been twirling in his fingers, making sure one last time that his plan was secure. He'd never hunted such a young child before, so this would be new for him. An entirely different game. Probably an easier one if the distracted tears were anything to go by. He looked on with a smile. No witnesses. No camera. No one to miss her. No one would know what he had done. Or so he thought.

He started his car and drove up behind her, unknowing of the single tiny little flaw in his plan. There was absolutely no way that he could've known of this flaw, but it was still there, despite his ignorance of it. Once she was reached, he got out quickly and grabbed her roughly by the arm. She was pulled with a smothered shout slightly to the left, out of the sight of any humans in the diner. The beginnings of a smile of joy at seeing an employee quickly turned into a look of horror and pain as a flash of steel sent blood spraying across the ground. Three more times did steel slice through flesh until she collapsed to the ground in agony. The employee's smile grew even wider, and he broke into a bout of sadistic laughter. It had been even easier than he'd thought it would be. As he did this, however, there was a single witness. One he never could've predicted. No human had seen, but no one in the diner that evening could explain why the girl's animatronic friend began to slow down in his cake rounds until his servos locked up, and he was still.

The employee drove back to his position in the parking lot a few minutes later, all traces of his crime washed away by the now relentless rain. There he would wait to see the product of his work. Inside, much of the night was spent trying to figure out why Fredbear's servos refused to work, and his speech seemed slurred and slowed until they finally turned him off and pulled out his endoskeleton for the rest of the shift. They'd let the new kid wear the suit and deal with the screaming children.

Unfortunately, or fortunately for some of the more cruel minded, the girl lived for a little while longer. He had left her for dead, not really bothering to make sure he had done the job properly as he had dragged her to an empty spot behind the diner, since he had been more concerned about making sure the scene was clear of any blood or guts. If he had, the story would be over before it had ever even started. But she held on for quite a while, bleeding out on the ground, rain washing away everything before it could stain. It is often said that the final stages of dying are often peaceful and dreamlike. Sadly, that couldn't be farther from the truth. The shock and cold stole the physical pain from her, but that would've seemed sweet relief compared to what she was enduring on the inside.

The fear, the horror, the betrayal. And now anger. So much anger. Why would he do this to her? Why would the others let him? He had always been so nice to her, sometimes even breaking the rules so she could see her friend. He would never have hurt her. Until now it seemed. She tried to cry for Fredbear, but she couldn't, broken and mangled as she was, and he couldn't come to save her, locked inside his cage of fur, steel and wire.

She died long before an employee found her body. 911 was called, and paramedics came, but it was too late to save her. Her song had ended, but her soul still remained, trapped by her anger and fear. She couldn't move on, not while there was a wrong that hadn't been righted. Not while the pain was still there. And she wasn't sure if that would ever go away.

As the paramedics took her body and police flocked the scene, her flitting spirit fled into the now abandoned diner. It was long past closing time, and the doors had been locked, but that didn't pose much of a problem for her. Not anymore at least. Once in, she immediately spotted Fredbear, slumped in the corner. He was still off, and no one had bothered to put his endoskeleton back in, leaving him limp and immobile. There wouldn't be any help from that direction. The girl moved through the darkened rooms, illuminated only by the faint lights of various electronics, the occasional flash of lightning and her own ghostly glow. She was looking for… something. She didn't know what yet, but she knew she would as soon as she saw it. Some strange instinct drove her, a feeling pushing her along to search for whatever it was. The entire diner was subject to her scrutiny, but she found nothing. Well… almost nothing. There was a vague feeling when she passed by the deactivated Fredbear, but it wasn't strong enough to be definite. Her searching became increasingly desperate until it was finally brought to an end by one thing.

Laid out on the counter, barely visible in the gloom, was the Marionette. She had passed over it due to the darkness several times already, but a flash of lightning at an opportune moment showed her the slim, black and white puppet. Normally, the Marionette lived inside of a music box that children could wind to see it pop out with a small present. The box had broken earlier that week, though, and it had been taken out to repair the box. Even the box was still in its usual spot, the Marionette itself had been left on one of the back counters in what would usually be plain sight for anyone behind the front counter.

The girl finally realized why she had been searching. She needed some sort of physical form to inhabit, so she could interact with the world in a meaningful way, and her spirit was anything but physical. Her hand passed straight through the puppet when she tried to touch it. True contact wasn't necessary, though, merely a connection. What she had was more than plenty, and she concentrated deeply on that one idea. Slowly, her spirit began to meld with the Marionette, causing it to twitch and jerk. It appeared as dark smoke streaming against a background of black. And then nothing.

One by one, her senses woke up. Sight, smell, hearing, touch. They were all heightened, no longer constrained by the limits of a human body. Tiny, white pinpricks appeared in what were otherwise hollow, black eyes, showing that there was now life in them. A twisted sort but life nonetheless. She sat up and raised a hand in front of her masked face, instinctively using some sort of psychic power to give the jointless puppet locomotion.

Suddenly, a huge bout of thunder could be heard as well as the sound of the nearby transformer blowing. The tiny lights of electronics on standby went out, and she flinched, cowering in fear. She had never been a fan of thunder. Almost immediately, though, the small lights were replaced by a much stronger golden glow and a quite groaning sound coming from the yellow bear in the corner. His light gold eyes were illuminated, and he was somehow awake and able to move. The girl within the puppet lifted her masked head to look at him, still partially curled up into a ball. He got up and walked over to the music box, placing a paw on it. As if from magic, the box began to play a small tune that the girl found calming. They looked at each other briefly before Fredbear came closer and took one of her small hands into his enormous paw. At once, the white pinpricks in her eyes disappeared, and she slumped over into the large bear's arms.

 _Sleep now Mari_ , he thought before placing her gently back onto the counter. _Sleep and then rise from your ashes, my little puppet master._


	2. Happy, Happy Fun Time

Liam adjusted the torso of the animatronic suit he was wearing. He didn't care what anyone else said about it being an honor or whatever; the Fredbear suit was hot, and he hated it. Not only that but he had to entertain children. Probably one of the most nerve racking tasks his coworkers could've given him, other than maybe waiting on the guests who were ordering meals. At least the children couldn't see his face.

So Liam was forced to sing for them in all his rather mediocre glory, not willing to look down at them for they were surely laughing their heads off at him by that point. He couldn't tell. The mask combined with the sound of the rain pelting the roof of the diner messed with his sense of hearing, so it was hard to hear much of anything. As long as he couldn't see them, though, he wouldn't have a mental breakdown. Probably. So instead he cast his eyes out at the diner around him. The whole place had been built to have a homely feel to it with warm colors and lighting and even a fireplace in the corner (not actually lit of course), and it helped to calm him down.

After a while of his torture, Liam spotted Kelly, one of the waitresses, waving to him out of the corner of his eye. She pointed to the clock as soon as she was sure she'd caught his attention. It was almost the end of his shift. That meant Vincent would arrive soon to pick him up, and he didn't want to make his friend wait for too long. Liam nodded as slightly as he could to Kelly and set to finishing the last song he was singing without making a fool out of himself.

"And that's how my story ends!" he finally finished on a rather off key note. To his great surprise, the end of the song was met by some rather enthusiastic clapping from the young children.

"Fredbear, Fredbear. Do another one please," one of the children begged, coming up to him and tugging on the suit. She had such a pleading look on her face that Liam was almost too scared to refuse her.

"Sorry kids. I just checked my watch, and it's just about getting to be my bedtime," he managed to reply, trying his best to imitate Fredbear's signature southern accent. A chorus of "awwwwws" followed, but none of the kids seemed to be too insistent about it. Liam was grateful for that. The Fredbear suit was hot and stuffy, and he didn't think he could go on any longer in front of so many people.

Discreetly loosening the clamps that held the suit pieces to each other, he went behind the back counter and through the door to the break room. He undid the rest of the clasps and neatly stacked the various pieces in the corner, next to the bare endoskeleton. Then he grabbed his time card to fill out, a pen and some coffee, glad that he was finally able to relax a bit before his sister was due to pick him up. The back room doubled as a break room, so he had to deal with the creepy endoskeleton staring at him. For a second, he considered putting the endoskeleton back in the bear, but that would take way too long.

"Hey Liam," Kelly came in and called to him, causing him to tense up slightly due to the surprise. He calmed down with the thought that Kelly was one of the nicer employees of the diner. Which was good because he'd barely managed to hold back a yelp from the surprise.

"Yea?" he replied as soon as he'd calmed his suddenly racing heart down. He hated that he had to keep asking everyone to stop sneaking up on him like that.

"When you leave, can you take out the trash please? Keven already left, and I have to be home earlier than usual to babysit my little cousin. The little squirt isn't old enough to watch himself sadly," Kelly asked him, grabbing her own time card to fill in the hours.

"Uh… sure," Liam finished up as quickly as he could at that and tried to put everything back in its proper place. If he was going to take out the trash, then he'd better do it quickly because the pouring rain outside didn't look like it was going to finish anytime soon.

"Thanks. And nice job out there with the kids," Kelly blew a kiss as Liam went red at the compliment. She only ever did that to him for some odd reason.

Putting it out of his mind, he left the room and made a beeline for the kitchen so he wouldn't have to say anything else. The faster he could be outside and then back in, the better, as he was already tired and ready for a good nap. A quick trip through the kitchen to grab the trash (slightly dripping with some sort of grease) and he was at the door, haphazardly pulling on his jacket on the way because rain equals cold and wet. Being November, it was already dark out. He stumbled through the shadows on his way to the dumpster and threw the bag into it. He was already soaked straight to the bone, despite his earlier precautions. As Liam was about to start on the way back, he managed to trip over something that someone had left in the middle of the path, falling straight into a puddle.

"Well, at least I can't get any wetter," he muttered as he slowly pushed himself back up, wet and shivering. Because it was too dark to see, he settled for feeling around on the ground for whatever he'd tripped over. Thankfully, seeing as it was near to him and fairly large, he found it pretty quickly. His hand met something soaking wet, cold and rather squishy. He wasn't in the dark for very long, though, as a flash of lightning lit up the night. In its fading light, what he saw sent shivers down his spine, from the biting cold or maybe even fear, he couldn't tell. A person was sprawled prone on the ground, still and unmoving. Whoever it was certainly couldn't have been very old.

"Hey. What are you doing out here?" he shook the child's shoulder a few times. No response. Aiming a quick glance at the back door, he decided to get himself and this other person out of the rain and into the warm restaurant. Desperately hoping the child hadn't caught hypothermia or something, he picked whoever it was up and held them close, planning to bring whoever it was inside. It was then that he realized that he couldn't hear or feel the child's breathing. Chalking it up to his own incompetence, he began to walk.

Slowly, though, he realized that it wasn't anything wrong with him that made it so he couldn't detect the breaths. It was something wrong with the child he was carrying. The fact that whoever it was actually wasn't breathing.

"Someone! Help! I need help out here!" he shouted, tripping over his own feet in the numbing cold. He got to his hands and knees, not even bothering to check himself for cuts and bruises in favor of trying to remember how to perform CPR. However, his mind wracking came up useless, and he didn't try, figuring he'd do more damage than help. He didn't even know if it would be possible to revive the child. They could've been outside for hours for all he knew, but he didn't want to think about that possibility and held out the hope that they would be alright. He went back to the tried and true method of trying to get closer to the door while calling for someone, anyone really. It took a full minute of stumbling and shouting before someone finally came to check on him. His boss, Alice poked her head out of the door.

"What is it Liam?" she called, completely oblivious to the state he was in.

"Someone's hurt out here! Call an ambulance!" he managed to shout, his voice cracking badly with emotion somewhere in the middle. He stumbled again, nearly falling into yet another puddle. Soon, he finally managed to get to the door, relief flooding through him. He'd made it, and the child would be safe. With that thought, he collapsed to the ground in sheer exhaustion just as he reached the door. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was Alice hovering over him like a concerned hen.


	3. Understanding

The first thing Liam noticed when he woke up was that it had stopped raining on him for some reason. The second thing he noticed was the fact that he was actually awake. He lurched upwards into a sitting position upon the realization but wished he hadn't once he saw that there were five or six people milling around the area, one of whom was crouched right next to him.

"Woah, woah. Calm down. We're here to help," the person next to him, a paramedic by the looks of him, said. Not one to normally calm down when in the presence of people, he broke into a sweat despite the fact that he was still quite cold. He looked around, trying to get a sense of the situation. He definitely wasn't lying down where he'd fallen. Instead, he was outside again. There was an ambulance parked several feet away, casting a bright light on the area with its headlights, and several of the customers from inside had come out to take a look. The paramedics were trying to keep the crowd back, away from the scene, though. There were fewer than Liam had remembered there being. Then again, it was close to closing time. Many had probably left.

"Wh- what's going on? Is the child ok?" he asked, gleaning a grim look from the paramedic. That didn't bode well. "What happened?"

"Well… alright would be a bit of an overstatement. In fact, saying that she's alive would be quite a bit of an overstatement," came the reply. Liam froze up at the statement. Had he been too late?

"How…" Liam didn't even have the ability to finish the question by that point.

"We're guessing it was from the four or five stab wounds we found on her. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?" the paramedic said, making Liam's blood run cold.

"N- no. I found her lying on the ground over near the dumpster. I didn't know she was dead, so I tried to bring her in. I mean, I could tell she wasn't breathing, but I thought there was time to save her. It was too dark to-" Liam's rambling was cut off by the paramedic.

"Don't worry. Your coworkers have assured us of your alibi. There shouldn't be much reason for the police to suspect you when they come," he assured Liam, who then nodded resigned to the fact that they would have to wait for the police to arrive. He knew that he would probably be the first person that the police questioned. Looking around him, he saw that the girl had been moved and placed on a stretcher. He himself was covered in a soft blanket and was significantly drier than when he'd been outside, which was good. Liam was probably lucky to not have gotten hypothermia or frostbite or something. Still, he was somewhat upset by the fact that he hadn't been able to do anything to help. The paramedic he talked to noticed his mood. "Hey, there's really nothing you could've done. She's been dead for hours. The wounds are clean, so she must've been out in the rain for a bit. In fact you probably helped. If you hadn't found her, then who knows how long it would've taken for someone else to do the same."

That didn't do much to help his mood, but he did latch onto a particular detail. "Her?"

"Yea. The kid you found was a girl. Probably about ten years old. Why? Did you know her?" the paramedic asked.

"I don't know…" he wondered if it would be rude to ask if he could see her.

"I can show you if you want. Identifying her as early as possible would be key," the paramedic got up and motioned to the stretcher.

"S-sure, I guess," Liam's tone remained quiet through the whole conversation. He got up and followed the paramedic's motion, but he couldn't see the girl. A sheet of some sort covered the body. The paramedic drew the sheet back, exposing the girl's face and upper body. It was the first time that day that he'd actually seen her clearly.

"Are you ok? You're a bit green," the paramedic placed a steadying hand on Liam's shoulder.

"I know her… oh god… we left her outside…" Liam was having trouble articulating himself. The girl's name was Mary, a homeless girl that the employees often let into the restaurant. They hadn't that day because of a birthday party. Alive, she had always been bright and bubbly despite living on the streets at such a young age. Now, her expression was blank, her green eyes empty and glassy. Several of the cuts made on her body were visible, a nauseating sight even with the blood washed away by the harsh rain. She didn't even look like her anymore.

"What do you mean? Explain everything you know,"

Liam took a deep breath. "Her name is Mary… she lived nearby… but I don't think she had a family… we'd let her in sometimes, but not tonight because of the party." he managed to get out the words, trying to keep the contents of his stomach where they belonged. Looking at the ground helped a bit. He wouldn't have to see what had happened to her.

"Well, at least we have a name now. Here, I'll cover her again," the paramedic drew the sheet back over Mary, and Liam chanced a look around again. The sight of Mary's lifeless body was gone, but the image remained in his head. He couldn't stop thinking about how he could've prevented this. Liam could've tried to tell the others to let her in. Deep inside, he knew he never would've done that though. He was always too scared to go against what the others decided.

"What's going to happen?" Liam asked.

"Well, the police are going to want to talk to you. Other than that, you don't need to worry about anything. We'll try to locate her family if she has any, but that's really all," the paramedic explained. He had a slightly apologetic tone, as if that wasn't everything, but he didn't want to worry Liam.

Liam nodded. "Ok…" he wasn't sure if he was allowed to wait inside, so he merely stood there awkwardly, pulling his blanket more tightly around himself. It was the most warmth he could get considering the circumstances. Slowly, more people came out of the diner, curious as to what was going on. Liam looked up to see that it was dark inside for some reason. That was also probably a part of why they were all coming out. It was much lighter and probably wouldn't be colder for long. He took another deep breath and backed into the shadows. This was going to be a very long night.


	4. Reaper

Fredbear was about to go back to his spot near the wall when he noticed a shadowy figure standing near the now dimmed fireplace. Despite the darkness, he could see well enough to recognize the figure as one of the local grim reapers on sight. It was his job to bring the souls of the dead across to the afterlife, a monumentous rask really.

"You're late, Tchin," Fredbear growled, barely able to control the anger that was starting to worm its way through him. Much of it didn't even come from the fact that she'd died, but rather from the fact that she'd been trapped on Earth much like himself instead of moving on. That wasn't supposed to happen. She should've moved on, aided by the reaper in front of him. Instead, she was stuck in limbo. She may not be able to understand at first, but she would eventually learn of the yearning to move on that all trapped spirits eventually got. Fredbear, could feel that within him, even though he'd been one of the few to stay by choice, having wanted to watch over the pizzeria.

Tchin stepped forward towards Fredbear, ruby colored eyes reflecting the dim, blue glow that came from Fredbear. The reaper's normally light grey hair took on a slight sapphire tint. It was an odd look on him to say the least.

"She wasn't supposed to die tonight," he said, adjusting the scythe he held over his shoulder so he could reach into one of his many coat pockets. Then he held a small, ratty notebook open to a page filled with names, all in different colors, and various annotations, "She's not on the list yet. I came as soon as I caught wind that something had happened, but I was too late. Marion's string broke long before it was due to be cut." the notebook was replaced by a length of white string that was frayed badly at one end.

"I know that because I was practically the only witness to her murder. You should have done something. But you didn't. And now she's trapped, and I'm stuck with you as well," Fredbear grumbled, turning away. He walked back to his place and sat down, as he couldn't support himself telekinetically for very long without tiring himself out. The fiery anger that had burned its way through his heart was already beginning to fade into resignation. Fredbear had never been able to stay angry at anything for very long. It wasn't in his nature.

"What could I have done? There was no warning. We didn't know it would snap," Tchin sat down as well at one of the tables, his scythe disappearing into the air. Usually it was just for symbolism and function, but Fredbear knew that it could be quite the lethal weapon if Tchin was threatened. It was a minute or so before Fredbear answered.

"I don't know," he said finally. Tchin's gaze met Fredbear's sad eyes for a brief second before the reaper looked away, uncomfortable with much prolonged eye contact. After that Fredbear looked past Tchin's physical self and into the reaper's aura for a second, ignoring the more apparent colors that signalled his personality and looked deeper into those that showed his mental state. It wasn't as accurate as mind reading, but Fredbear could get a general idea of what people were feeling and thinking. Tchin's colors rarely changed, but there was some variation this time around. Tchin was disappointed. In who, Fredbear wasn't sure, but it was at least something.

"I'm going to scout around outside and make sure there's no rogue spirits. If I'm going to be stuck here for awhile, then I might as well make sure we're all safe. I don't particularly feel like getting attacked by anything unpleasant," Tchin phased through the wall, going out to view the area. Reapers were some of the few spirits who were able to cross back and forth between the afterlife and the physical plane easily, due to their specific jobs. However, Mary was a Puppet Master, quite a powerful type of spirit and dangerous to not only other spirits but also the living world if not properly taught how to control their powers. When reapers missed bringing Puppet Masters to the afterlife, they were trapped in the physical plane. It was meant to make it so that the trapped Puppet Masters always had someone beside them who could help them move on. More often than not, though, it merely caused some reapers, who were already doing their jobs unwillingly much of the time, to become bitter and angry. Fredbear knew that Tchin wasn't like that, though.

Unhappy with the recent events, Fredbear let his telekinesis go and slouched into a position that would be extraordinarily uncomfortable for any living human. However, he let the glow in his eyes remain, illuminating the dark restaurant that he, and now two others, called home.


	5. The Scene of the Crime

Such a large crowd had accumulated around the scene of the crime by the time the police got to the scene that the majority of the officers had a very difficult time getting into the crowd, and the paramedics were having a hard time getting out. Normally, there wouldn't be so many people to navigate through, but there had been two separate birthday parties going on when Marion Phoenix had been discovered. As was obvious, most of the guests had yet to leave. There were parents covering the eyes of small children and horrified teenagers who had been dragged along to the parties so as not to be left at home alone.

Orders of, "S'cuse me, pardon me, coming through," could be heard at various points in the semicircle of people as officers tried to push their way through. Finally, after a few minutes of being ignored, an officer by the name of Alexander Schmidt wised up and grabbed a megaphone from his car.

"Alright people, listen up," he shouted, getting the crowd's attention. "This is a murder investigation, so would everybody please move away from the body and wait near the entrance of the restaurant until they can be questioned? That is not a request that is an order." Xander added the last part when the crowd seemed reluctant to move, It seemed his tone of voice convinced them, however, and within a minute, they had relocated to the other side of the diner. However, as people filed out, one man remained, hidden in the shadows cast by a nearby grove of trees.

"Looks like I'd better clear out," he muttered with a very slight German accent. It was almost unnoticeable, "Wouldn't want to be a suspect or anything."

The man laughed out loud, the sound masked by the distance between him and everyone else at the diner, and started walking back to where he had parked the car. He always liked to see the aftermath of his little excursions. It was amusing, watching the police scramble around to search for some sort of incriminating evidence that they'd never find. He'd planned the day carefully with the rain and all, as he hadn't needed to do anything other than let it wash away almost everything, leaving nothing but the body. Another perk was that he'd had the chance to cut the power for even more destructive potential, and no one would find out it was sabotage until they actually went to check the blown transformer for the damage.

Once he got into the car, he checked himself in the rear view mirror. Even when it is raining, one could never be too sure that one is not covered in blood, especially with authorities involved. Thankfully, nothing seemed out of place there. However, there was quite a large bloodstain on his shirt that he would have to deal with later. He'd brought a blanket just in case that happened. It usually didn't, but the rain had made vision difficult. It was starting to wind down now, but before, it had been bad enough that he hadn't wanted to risk getting water in his eyes with contacts on. As a result, he was wearing glasses instead. Which were extremely annoying.

He finished checking to make sure he was clean other than the very obvious stain on his shirt and was just about to start the car when he heard a knocking at his window. He looked through it to see one of the younger dishwashers looking through the window with a hopeful look on his face.

"Wonderful…" he muttered, pushing his hair back from his face, recognizing Liam. He'd wake Vincent up for this. As fun as messing with the kid was, it really wasn't the best time for that. He pulled the blanket from the other side of the car over his lap, making sure to cover the bloodstain.


	6. Going Home

Liam had already been standing outside the car for a few minutes before the window finally rolled down slightly. Not enough for him to really see into it all that well, though.

"Vicky, are you gonna let me in? They won't let Anna come to pick me up," he said, seeing his friend Vincent inside. Vince shuffled around a bit before lowering the window more. He had a blanket over him for some reason.

"Ja, ja. Just let me unlock ze doors," he said in his thick German accent. He pressed a button on the door sill, and the click noting the locks being unlatched followed. Liam went around and got in the shotgun side. As he was getting in he noticed Vincent pulling out a box of cigarettes and a lighter.

"Ok, what's wrong?" Liam asked.

"Vat makes you sink zat ansing is wrong?" Vincent said back, lighting the cigarette. He was wondering why Val hadn't started bothering him about whether or not he'd tell Liam the truth. Which he wouldn't.

"Because I know you," Liam rolled his eyes. Vincent only smoked when he was upset, that and his accent was rough and hard to understand at the moment. Usually he spoke in a way that let people other than Liam understand. Finally, he was being quiet. Vincent was never quiet. He was the loudest person Liam knew. Which was an impressive testament to their friendship. Liam wouldn't be able to function around anyone else with a similar personality.

"I've just been out all day. Val vasn't being a nice person," Vincent seemed slightly off. As if he wasn't really all in one place.

"Yea, why are you two here? It's your day off," Liam drummed his fingers on the window aimlessly. He was just glad that Vince had been up when he got in rather than Val.

"I don't know. He didn't tell me," Only the first part of that was a lie. He knew exactly what Val was doing. It infuriated him, but he was too afraid to say anything. He was too afraid of what might happen to them if Val was caught, so he kept it a secret.

"There was a murder. That's why the police were there. Does Val know anything about that?" Liam said. Vince went paler than he already was, desperately hoping that Liam wouldn't put the pieces together. Val was a jerk most of the time, but he never acted particularly murderous for that exact reason, so no one would suspect him.

"Nein. Vy vould he?" Vince masked his nervousness by adding a confused tone to his voice. Possibly the only perk of having Val living with him was the fact that the murderer was insistent upon them both being good actors. As such, Vince had been a good liar since he was young.

"Just wondering. Although you two are weird enough that I'm not surprised by anything you do anymore," Liam joked. Vince decided it was time for a change of topic.

"So, any luck finding a girlfriend?" Vincent put the murder out of his mind, and Liam, sensing that he was at least trying to be alright, prepared himself for the nonstop chatter. And it was nonstop through the whole car ride. Thankfully, most of Liam's replies didn't need to be anything more than a sentence or two. At some point, he started to zone out a bit, not really paying attention until, finally, they made it to the driveway in front of Liam's house.

"Viel gluck, I see your mozer in ze porch," Vincent said as Liam got out of the car. Then he grabbed a sweater from on the floor and quickly put it on before getting out as well. Liam was not happy about his mom waiting for him. Things like that were never good. He couldn't be that late, could he?

"Bye Vince," Liam muttered as his much taller friend pulled him into a tight bear hug. "Agh, you're squishing me!"

"Es tut mir Leid," Vincent said, releasing Liam, who looked a bit winded.

"That's alright. See ya later," the smaller teenager waved and started to walk towards the porch.

"Tschuss!" Vincent called before getting back in the car. Liam continued on to where his mom was waiting for him. Knowing her, it would be some sort of lecture about getting home late, mixed with some weird tangent along the lines of partying all night and getting drunk or high. Or both. As if Liam would ever be caught dead with that many people all at the same time. He almost laughed at the thought until the looks on his mom and sister's faces came into focus. The frown of anger wiped the half-smile from his face. This was going to be a long night.


	7. Brothers in Strange Places

Vincent shut the front door of his house quietly behind him after he finally got home. Despite his carefulness, though, he was still heard and greeted by the one person left awake.

"Daddy!" a short boy darted into the room and barreled straight into his father, who grunted and pretended to fall to the floor in mock surrender.

"Ak! You vin, you vin! Let me up, Andy," he cried out before Andy let him up. He then dusted himself off and set a semi stern look at the child. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"I pretended to sleep until Uncle Jeremy went to bed, so that I could wait for you to get home. Jay is asleep, though," Andy stated as seriously as possible for an eight year old.

"Zat is because Jay is apparently smarter zan you. Don't you have school in ze morning?" Vincent fixed the boy with what was often mockingly called his 'grown-up look.' It didn't actually look all that grown-up.

"Nope. School's out tomorrow," Andy said with a triumphant smile. "Plus, how can Jay be smarter than me? He's a baby."

"No, he's not. Can you go start the tub? Be careful not to vake up Jeremy," Vincent said, taking off his sweater. Some of the blood on his shirt had soaked through and stained the inside a little.

"Cold water, right? 'Cause it's blood?" Andy asked, darting into the kitchen before his father could even begin to answer.

Vincent called out to Andy, who was surely all the way to the bathroom by that point, "Grab ze orange soap please! Ze green van doesn't vork!" The only response that came was that of the tub faucet starting to spew water and the thumping sound of cabinets hitting the wall. Vincent started walking into the other room, pulling his stained shirt off on the way.

 _You sure that's such a good idea while Jeremiah is still in the house. He could wake up,_ Valentine said from the back of his mind.

"I'm not talking to you right nov," Vincent grumbled, running into a wall when his shirt blocked his view.

 _Oh, the silent treatment. How mature,_ no response. _You're serious aren't you? Well that's not much fun._ Valentine went silent. Vincent decided to take his sweet time getting to the bathroom, and Andy was just shutting off the water and putting the soap bottle on the edge of the tub when he got there. The little boy looked up, trying not to stare at the various scars and bruises that his father had. Andy knew better than to ask about them other than the still bandaged wound on his arm that he'd gotten from falling out of a tree the week before.

"Daddy, you must be super lucky, 'cause Uncle Jeremy went to bed early tonight. If he was awake, he would've seen," Andy said as his father dumped the dirty shirt into the half filled tub. The downstairs bathroom was smaller than upstairs, despite being the one with the shower, and Andy had to climb onto the toilet to make room.

"If your uncle had been avake, zen I vould have been more careful," Vincent assured the boy. The worry was cute, though. He'd never had to tell Andy not to tell anyone about Valentine's 'excursions' as they both called them in conversations. The little boy just automatically knew that it was something that needed to be kept a secret. He worried about his father, though. Being a better reader than most kids his age, and being curious about why his was different from all the other kids' fathers, he read a lot of books about how the brain works (always with a dictionary or other reference book on hand, in case of big words). In fact, he could probably tell a person more about mental disorders than most of the adults he knew, and he could even pronounce everything to some degree of accuracy. A lot of what he read scared him, though, and made him wonder what would happen if Valentine ever got caught.

As Vincent washed his shirt, he noted the expression on Andy's face.

"Somesing wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing Daddy. I'm fine," Andy lied. Problem was, he was a really crappy liar, especially when talking to his father, who often seemed like a human lie detector.

"Alright," Vincent said dubiously but dropping the subject anyway. Andy nodded and managed a smile. No matter what happened, his Daddy would always be his Daddy. He was sure of that at least.

They sat in silence for awhile, Andy sitting on the toilet while his father kneeled over the tub. The water was starting to take on a red tinge where it was visible through the soap as the blood from the shirt leached into it. Annoyingly, Vincent's hair kept falling into his face, and he had to keep pushing it back behind his ears, making a mental note to shower when he woke up. After the third or fourth time, Andy got up and checked in the cabinet over the sink for a hair tie. He didn't see any of those,so he tried to find some string instead. That stuff was always getting everywhere, kinda like cat fur, except spread by his uncle when he had enough time off from school to sew. Not finding that either, he sat on the toilet again with his arms crossed until an idea came to him. Andy stood behind his father and started to tie Vincent's hair into a clumsy knot. It ended up as a very messy ponytail that fell to just above his shoulders. A few stray hairs were still loose, but they wouldn't be a bother.

"Sank you," Vincent said, concentrating on what he was doing. He pulled the shirt out of the water to see if he could still see the spot on it. It looked like it was gone, but he stuck it back under another time just in case.

"You're welcome!" Andy said cheerfully before letting out a great big yawn.

"Looks like bedtime-"

"No!" Andy cut his father off. "I wanna stay up."

Vincent stood up and dumped the mostly clean shirt into the sink. The washing machine could probably take care of whatever was left, if there even was anything left.

"You're tired, Andy. It's bedtime," he said, trying and failing to sound stern. Andy looked down in disappointment.

"Ok," Andy tried to give his Daddy yet another tackle hug, but the small space in the bathroom made it difficult, so he had to settle for a regular hug. "Goodnight Daddy."

"Goodnight Andy," Vincent hugged his son back before the boy scampered out of the bathroom and up to his bedroom.


	8. A New Suspect

Zero. Zilch. Nada. That is exactly how much of anything Xander Schmidt and his fellow police officers had found on the crime scene. Other than the girl herself of course. It didn't help that the power had gone out earlier because of the storm, so he was limited to what was illuminated by his flashlight. Xander was just finishing yet another sweep of the area before he could go back to the area that the others were congregating in.

"Xander, you got anything?" his partner, Maria, called from where she was standing slightly apart from the others near the entrance.

"Nope. Found nothing. Photoed anything that could've looked like something in the dark anyway. This is ridiculous. No evidence to say who did it and an awfully convenient power outage. Has anyone else had any luck?" he made a gesture of defeat as he walked towards the group.

"No. We've already had the paramedics take the body away. Poor girl. The employees said that she was homeless. They'd let her in during the day to play with the robot bear, and they'd even feed her whenever they had extra food, which apparently happened a lot," Maria said with a sad look on her face. She had a soft spot for children that Xander could understand, having a little one of his own back home.

"Don't get too down over this. We need you to help us catch whatever sick, twisted person did it and put him behind bars where he belongs," Xander assured Maria.

"Or her," She added. "It could've been a woman."

"Yea, yea. You don't have to go spouting your women are just as capable as men thing every five minutes. You're a police officer for crying out loud. Now, let's go see if Phil got anything out of the employees," Xander and Maria converged with the rest of the group, looking for the interrogator.

"Anything?" Phil asked once they'd found him.

"No, you?"

"Potentially. Only thing out of the ordinary that was reported was sightings of an employee's car in the parking lot. The man himself was never seen, and it was his day off. You think you can go in to question him?" Phil relayed the information. It made sense that they'd want Xander to go question the potential child murderer. He always did well with getting crazy people to spill the beans.

"Depends. Can you tell me exactly who I'm questioning?" Xander asked.

"His name is Vincent Fitzgerald," Phil handed Xander a slip of paper. "We got his address from the restaurant's records. Be careful, though. I was told that he can be a bit unstable."

"No need to worry. I can handle unstable. We'll pay him a visit tomorrow. See ya," Xander assured. He turned away, looking forward to getting a good night's sleep in preparation for the morning. Maria caught up with him on the way from where she'd been talking to one of the other officers.

"Do you think that that's the guy we're looking for? Already?" she asked.

"I don't know, but if he is, we're gonna make sure that he gets put behind bars. I promise you that," Xander said.

"Right, then. You'd better get home to Christine and little Mikey then. See ya later," Maria smiled weakly before waving off Xander.

"Will do," he called back before getting into his car. Xander couldn't explain it, but for some reason, he had a very bad feeling about this new case.


	9. Interrogation

Xander steeled himself as he walked up to the blue painted door of the apartment in front of him. It wasn't big but certainly large enough for a family. To his surprise, the door opened before he could knock. A small boy, no more than seven or eight years old stood in front of him. His appearance seemed rather extreme, being quite short for his age with hair so blonde it was near white and bright and bright, emerald green eyes, but nothing was so evident as the look of fear on his face.

"Daddy didn't do it!" the boy blurted out as soon as he saw the officer. That was something odd for a young child to say. Maybe this man really did have something to hide. He looked back to where Mara was still in the car, but she merely shrugged, too far away to say anything he might be able to hear.

"Andy, who is at ze door?" a rather loud, accented voice came from somewhere else in the room. Annoyingly, that somewhere else wasn't very visible through the small crack in the door that the scared looking boy, Andy presumably, was looking through.

"It's the police," Andy squeaked. There was a loud thumping sound, as if someone had run into something, and then a very tall man came slightly into view rubbing his head. As opposed to the short blonde child in front of him, the father, Xander could only presume that he was despite how young he looked, was quite tall and had bright lavender colored hair for some reason. But, like the child, his eyes were unnerving behind his glasses, being a strange, pale greyish silvery color. The effect was only slightly ruined by the fact that he was carrying a squirming toddler on his hip.

"Andy, can you take Jaime for his nap?" he said. Andy nodded, and the toddler, Jaime, was put on the floor.

"I don't wanna!" the little one cried.

"Yea, well you've gotta. Let's go see if Uncle Jeremy's up yet, so you can say goodnight," Andy pulled the reluctant toddler up the stairs. Xander took the chance to finally say something.

"Are you Mr. Vincent Fitzgerald?" he asked. The man took a second to answer, studying the officer with a slightly fearful look.

"Ja. Zat is me. Just call me Vince," he said finally, stepping out onto the porch. Xander backed up a bit to give him some room, as he was a lot bulkier than Xander had originally estimated. He held out his hand to shake, which Xander took.

"Vince then. My name is Officer Schmidt. I'm sure my visit is quite unexpected, but I just want to ask a few questions," Xander said with a warm smile. "Were those your children? You look a bit young to be a father."

"Zey're bos adopted. Plus I have help from zeir uncles," Vincent explained, pulling a pencil from behind his ear and twirling it in his fingers.

"Uncles?" Xander asked, pulling out his own pencil and a pad of paper to take notes on.

"Ja. Zere's Jeremy and… actually just Jeremy. Silly me. I'm a bit forgetful sometimes," Vincent covered up his slip with a joke, bonking himself on the head with the palm of his hand. Xander narrowed his eyes suspiciously and wrote a note in but didn't say anything else about the odd comment.

"Well, that's alright. Just a question, have you noticed anything suspicious at Fredbear's Family Diner at all recently? There was an incident there, and it was brought to my attention that you're an employee," a fearful look flickered briefly across Vincent's face before disappearing just as quickly, leaving Xander wondering if he'd imagined it.

"Suspicious? Hov so?" he sounded confused, as if wondering what was going on.

"Just anyone acting out of the ordinary. People who come in but don't buy anything or customers who loiter more than usual. Watching," Xander said. Vincent shook his head.

"Nosing suspicious. If you vant somevan who could tell you somesing like zat, you could talk to Liam. He's shy. but he notices everysing," said Vincent with a decidedly helpful tone.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Now were you personally at the restaurant at any time yesterday?" This time when the fearful look came, it stayed ever so slightly longer, just enough for Xander to know that he hadn't imagined it.

"Yesterday? I sink so, I'm not sure. I knov I vas zere for at least a little while, but I am not sure hov long. Most of yesterday vas a bit of a blur," he admitted.

"What do you mean by a blur?" That was an odd claim. He had people claim amnesia before, but this sounded different.

"Er… I am not sure hov to explain it," Vincent said. He looked like he was starting to get nervous, if only very slightly.

"Can you try?" Xander asked, continuing to jot down notes.

"Not-" he broke off, dead silent. The slightly nervous look in his eyes turned into a cold, hard glare, and the corners of his mouth turned up into a slight grin. When he spoke, even his voice seemed slightly lower and rougher, less accented. "Well that would be my fault. Apologies of course," he said in a mocking tone.

"What the…" Xander was taken by surprise with the complete shift in mood.

"Valentine here. Vincent is… indisposed I guess I'd call it. You're talking to me now," he smirked. Xander hadn't expected something like that. He'd been told that the man was unstable, but he'd been expecting something that would be more obvious right off the bat rather than multiple personalities. Honestly, he really didn't know how to deal with something like that. A second of gathering his thoughts made Xander realize one thing, though. The man had never stopped twirling his pencil. There had been no struggle to take control as Xander would imagine something like this might happen. It had been seamless and without warning.

"Interesting," he muttered, trying not to betray his uneasiness. But it wasn't much use. Valentine's eyes seemed to see straight through him. The odd silver color that had been unnerving before was now straight out terrifying when paired with the new facial expression. At least Vincent had been amiable. This man seemed like the complete opposite. "I guess I'll ask you about this as well then. Good to have a few different views on things."

"No, I didn't see anything suspicious. Yes, I was at the restaurant. I was the one in charge for most of yesterday. Is that all? I have a few brats to take care of right now," Valentine leaned back against the door.

"Straightforward. Makes things easier for me," Xander muttered. He wrote down the police station's number on the next sheet of paper and tore it out. "Well, if you end up having anything else you want to tell us, just call the station. Thank you for your time."

Valentine took the paper and grunted before going back inside. Xander turned back around to go back to the car.

"Anything?" Maria asked once he got in.

"Not really. The only things that I got were that he was there and the fact that he's batshit crazy. At first he seemed normal but a couple of times he looked at me like I was a terrorist or something. Then he did this odd personality switch or something and called himself Valentine. He had this creepy grin on his face the rest of the time. It was weird," Xander grumbled, turning the key in the ignition a few times before the car started. Maria decided to ignore the batshit crazy part and focus on whether or not there was anything tangible.

"No alibi?" she decided to ask.

"Nope. He said he was there but didn't say what he was doing there," Xander said, trying to make sense of the man in his head. First he had been normal, if terrified, and then he was the kind of person Xander would definitely suspect of murder.

"Well he was there. At least that's something," Maria said, lost in her own thoughts.

"Yea. We'd better get back to the diner," Xander started to drive as his partner nodded absentmindedly.

"Andy, you can come down now," Valentine called as the officers drove away. Apparently they had it in their heads that he was the murderer. Frankly, they were right in that, but still. It wasn't like they had any evidence.

"I'm coming, Uncle Valentine," Andy came dashing down the stairs, toddler-less. It seemed he'd at least gotten the smaller brat to lie down. Valentine smirked for a second. The kid was smart enough to tell him and Vincent apart by the sound of their voices. "Uncle Jeremy was still asleep, so I told Jaime to be quiet. Then I hid in my room. Why did the police come?"

"Did you hear what happened at Fredbear's Diner last night?" Valentine asked, taking off his glasses, then scowling and putting them back on again. It wasn't worth going to put in contacts at that moment. He was going to let Vincent back up anyway to deal with the small people.

"Yea. It was on the news this morning… was that you?" Andy had already guessed that it was, even though his uncle had never specifically told him where he was going the night before. He'd just been told that it was more important than usual. Two murders in one one night would be overly coincidental, though, so it was easy to puzzle out.

"It was," Valentine smirked at Andy. the boy was smart for his age, so he didn't bother trying to lie.

"But the police actually found you this time, though. What if they catch you? They'll take you and Daddy away," Andy didn't want to lose his Daddy, even if his uncle was a bad person. He at least acted like less of a bad person around him and Jaime, and that's what mattered in his mind at the moment.

"Then we'll just make sure they don't," Valentine promised his nephew. The police would never actually catch him if he had anything to say about it.

Andy nodded in agreement. "Ok, then."

"Now how about some lunch? I'm making grilled cheese today," Valentine started walking towards the kitchen. Andy's eyes lit up, and he jumped up to rush and beat his father there. "Just give me a second, ok?" he called to the kid.

"Ok," Andy called back. Valentine grabbed a letter had written earlier from the nightstand and popped outside for a quick second to stick it into the mailbox, making sure to put the flag up so the mailman would know to take it.

Fazbear Entertainment's representative took the letter mailed to the company by one Mr. Fitzgerald. According to the intern, it was 'very important,' and the fact that it was marked do not open reinforced that. He already knew what was in it, but it never hurt to check anyway.

 _Mr. Adam Fazzino,_

 _I took care of my part of the bargain. Now it's your turn. Mail will work. Deal with the police. Keep my family out of it._

 _-Valentine_

 _P.S._

 _Sorry Valentine was a bit blunt. He's always like that._

 _-Vincent_

The lawyer let out a short laugh as he read it. Crude but effective with an amusing twist at the end. The handwriting at the beginning of the letter was even neater and more uniform than the bad cursive that the postscript was written in. He folded it back up, taped the envelope closed and called the intern back in.

"Take this to Mr. Fazzino, alright? Do not let anyone else see it under any circumstances," with a nod the intern was off. A smile crept its way onto the lawyer's face. Everything was going according to plan.


	10. Walking Free

It was midday on a Friday, and the diner was closed. If that didn't scream something was wrong, then Fredbear didn't know what did. Tchin was gone to pick up the last few names on his list for the week, and there had been various officials outside throughout the morning, but no one had actually come in since last night when the police had been checking for clues. Thankfully, Mary had slept through it. He'd done a good enough job at putting her to sleep to at least avoid that.

Fredbear shuddered, thinking of what might happen if Mary was upset or angered. She wasn't a normal spirit. Her aura wasn't right for that. even a young child such as she should have some sort of color and personality, to it, but hers was pure white. No variation. White usually represented innocence, a blank slate. Babies and sometimes people with amnesia had white auras, but not for long. Mary's strange aura could only mean one thing under the circumstances. She was a poltergeist or puppet master as they were often called due to some of the less pleasant powers that they had. They were also often uncontrollable and sporadic, as their powers were more closely intertwined with their emotions than a normal spirit.

The toll of the clock hanging on the wall drew Fredbear out of his thoughts. It was about noon. Seemed to him like a good time as any to try and figure out what was going on with the police. He stood up but not as he had the night before. A walking, talking animatronic bear would be much too conspicuous for his needs. It had taken him quite a while after he had died to learn how to walk outside of his vessel, but since then, he had mastered the skill. His spirit appeared mostly as he had in life, an older man with an enormous, bushy moustache. Unlike in life, though, his hair was dark blonde, he noted as he looked at his reflection in the mirror. he could have sworn he had brown hair. Or was it supposed to be blonde? He couldn't remember. Every time he walked outside of his vessel, it seemed he had forgotten a little bit more about his life.

Pushing the thoughts out of his mind, Fredbear walked towards the back door and looked outside to make sure no one was there. No one would be able to see him unless he let them, but a door supposedly opening by itself would most certainly be noticeable. Seeing no one, he slipped out of the diner, opening and closing the door as quietly as possible. He couldn't exactly go through things like he'd seen Mary do the night before, as his perception of reality was a lot more ingrained. Then, he casually meandered around to the front, taking note of who in the group of police was alive and who wasn't, as they'd attracted the attention of a few passing spirits. There were probably more that he couldn't see, though, as travel in the overworld wasn't very common among the dead.

"This isn't working Phil. We've gone over the scene dozens of times last night and this morning. Whoever did it, did it well with the rain and all. I say we should just go back and question the employees again," one of the officers looked like he was arguing with another.

"No, no. There's gotta be something. No one's that good. Let's just wait around some more until Xander and Maria get back from questioning that Fitzgerald guy," Phil was waving his hands about while he spoke, nearly hitting the person standing next to him (said person was a spirit, but that was beside the point).

"Then wait for them if you want. The rest of us are going back to the station to see what the autopsy turned up," the first one said back, waving the rest of the officers over to the cars, leaving Phil to mutter to himself. Most of the spirits left as well, either walking, teleporting or leaving in some other way. Soon, though, Fredbear saw another police car pull into the parking lot, and two more officers got out, presumably Xander and Maria.

"Anything?" Phil asked.

"All we got was that Fitzgerald was there. Nothing to prove guilt, but everything he said matched up with what Anderson told us," Xander said. The Fitzgerald they were talking about was most definitely Valentine, who was most definitely the murderer. Fredbear's hand curled into a fist as he fought to control his anger. That man had murdered a little girl in cold blood. Not just any little girl. He'd killed Mary. Fredbear's friend. Valentine deserved to be punished, and Mary deserved to be avenged

Fredbear left the scene to go around to the back before he could hear anything else. The police were failing, so he would have to search for himself. As Phil had said, there had to be something. He searched around the back where she'd been found, near the front where he'd seen Valentine grab her, the whole area in between, even the complete opposite side of the diner. And what he found had been nothing as well. The man had been too thorough, and the storm had taken care of the rest.

"Well that was a bust," he muttered, the slightest southern hint apparent in his voice. Despite his determination, there had been nothing. It was infuriating. He looked through the window at Mary, lying on the counter in her own vessel, the Marionette. Maybe if they didn't manage to catch Valentine, she'd at least never have to see him again. Then they might just be able to put the past behind them.

"Hey you. You the bear who works in the diner?" someone said from behind him. Fredbear spun around to see another spirit behind him, who'd obviously died young by the looks of it.

"Yes. How could you tell?" Fredbear asked, wondering. He probably wasn't the first spirit to go snooping around the outside of a restaurant. If there's anything dead people are interested in, it's more dead people.

"You mean other than the fact that you look like you belong in a barbershop quartet?" that comment grated on Fredbear's pride. He most certainly was not a member of a barbershop quartet. It takes a special sort of skill to be a soloist. Plus, he was wearing a top hat, not a boater hat. The two didn't even remotely look the same. Nevertheless, he refrained from speaking his mind to the younger spirit. His expression, however must've tipped the other to his mood, though because the next thing he said was, "Oh, no sir. I didn't mean any disrespect. I just wanted to know because I like your music, and you looked a bit upset."

"Well, then, I appreciate your concern, but I can assure you I am quite fine," Fredbear lied, forcing a smile. It wasn't common that a complete stranger would do something like that. The other spirit nodded and walked off.

"Who was that?"

Fredbear looked up to see Tchin walking back with a spot of chocolate on his face.

"I don't know. He was merely concerned. Do you have any news?" Fredbear asked.

"None that you would be interested in. Sorry big guy," Tchin's tone wasn't exactly inspiring any confidence in that assessment as he walked past Fredbear and went to watch the remaining officers. However, Fredbear knew he wouldn't be able to get anything from the reaper.

Deflated, Fredbear walked back inside. He hadn't gained anything from his little excursion. He settled back into his vessel, hoping that next time, there would at least be something to show for it.


	11. Lawyers and Meetings

Alice hated meetings. She hated them with all her heart and soul, but sadly they were a necessary evil. At least in these circumstances. The sound of a door opening caught her attention, and she looked up just in time to see two men and a woman walk into the room she was currently situated in.

"Hello. You are Mrs. Schwartz I presume?" one of the men said. Alice was able to peg him as the one who would be doing all the talking. He had an air of authority that the other two lacked. His name tag read Stephen. At least that saved her the effort of asking his name.

"Bearson, actually, and you are the people who want to buy my diner, I presume," Alice replied as politely as she could muster. She really didn't want to sell the diner, but she had no choice. Reopening it where it was would drive them out of business very quickly, and there wasn't the money for a change of location.

"Not exactly. We're their lawyers, but for the purposes of this meeting, we act in their stead. I'm sure you understand why we're a requirement due to recent events," Stephen said, holding out a piece of paper. Wonderful. If there was anything Alice disliked more than meetings, it was lawyers. Greedy little annoyances always supporting whoever had the most money, no matter whether they were in the right or not. "Just sign here, and you'll receive payment within the month."

Alice picked up the pen but hesitated to sign. Even if keeping it would be impossible, it felt wrong to her. She had started the diner with her late husband, Frederick, a few years ago with the idea to entertain children with music and games to give the parents a bit of a break, and it felt like she was doing him a great injustice to sell it.

"My family and I will be assured continued association with the diner and the accompanying character, correct?" She had to make sure of at least that. Her daughter and grandchildren had grown up with Fredbear and it would break their hearts to have to leave him.

"Of course. We'll be sure to offer employment to anyone in any way related to the diner, including yourself, your family and any current and past employees. The new location we have planned is close enough to the original to be available to everyone already nearby yet far enough away to avoid the negative reputation brought on by the unfortunate incident a month ago," Stephen assured.

"Alright, then," Alice looked over the contract one last time to make sure that everything was in its proper place before signing it with a long, loopy signature. Then she said slightly bitterly, "There. The diner is yours."

"Fazbear entertainment thanks you for your cooperation, Mrs. Bearson," Stephen said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. Then he left Alice to lament on her own with a sour taste in her mouth.


	12. Goodbyes

Alice walked up to the front of Fredbear's family diner for what was probably the last time. She held back tears as she unlocked the door for the moving men to come in. They had almost everything they needed; the only things that were left were Fredbear and the Marionette, and it wasn't guaranteed that they would take the Marionette.

"Come on in," she said, throwing the door open and kicking the little wooden wedge into place to keep it open. Paying no mind to the men following her, she made a beeline for the animatronic bear in the corner. He was sitting slumped against the wall, still empty of his endoskeleton. She and her late husband had always been proud of Fredbear, as he was highly advanced, able to walk around on his own and almost interact with the children like another human being.

"Hello Fredbear," she said, unknowing of the fact that the bear in question was listening to her. "I had to sell the diner. I didn't want to but there was no choice. Sadly, that means you have to go with them."

Internally, the spirit inhabiting Fredbear was sad. Together they had built this place from scratch. It had taken hard work and effort to do so as well. Now they had to leave it. He didn't dare answer, though. Not only was he unwilling to compromise his and Mary's position but he was afraid of somehow alienating his wife, as strange as that may seem.

He nearly looked up as Alice let out a sad sort of laugh. "Here I am at the end of my time managing this place, and I'm talking to a robot bear." she hung her head down low, still trying to stifle tears. "Goodbye Fredbear. Will you tell the Marionette I said so too?" she turned away with a weak smile, never getting an answer.

"Ma'am. Any instructions on how to handle the bear?" one of the workers asked her.

"Put his endoskeleton in before you put him in the truck. There's a dial on the back of the neck with a few labels. Turn it to free-roam just in case he activates at some point. He shouldn't, but there's a small chance if he gets bounced around in the truck too much. I assume you lot know how to charge his batteries. And for the love of God, be careful with him," she gave the instructions quickly and precisely before going to the door. But she still hesitated before leaving.

"I'm sorry," she finally said to no one in particular, and then she was gone.


	13. A Very Bumpy Ride

**A/N: I have finally received a review! Wooh! What a milestone. Thank you ACertainCrimsonFox. It is very much appreciated. I feel like I should leave author's notes more often to try and connect with the readers a bit more, but I never know what to say. It's so frustrating. Hmm... do I have anything to say? Actually, yes I do. If anyone is annoyed by some of the chapters being a bit longer while some of them are also ridiculously short, I'm gonna try and fix that at some point. Once I'm done with all 66 chapters worth of this (did I mention I have 66 total chapters planned? A lot, I know), I'm gonna go back and edit the whole thing while I write part 2 of the series. Also, it's a series. With 12 planned entries. I really should cut down on that. Way too ambitious for my means. Anyway, I'll bet you're all tired of my rambling, so on with the story!**

Fredbear wasn't entirely sure where the men driving the truck were taking him, Tchin and Mary. He'd caught a few sentences about the new location and something about a storage unit but nothing about where either of them would be. There were no windows in the back of the truck, so he couldn't see anything either. By the way the others in the truck were acting, with Tchin brooding and Mary still asleep from Fredbear's meddling, he was practically left alone with his thoughts.

What Alice had said the day before had obviously been upsetting, but he understood. Even at the slow rate news got around town, everyone probably knew of the murder at the children's restaurant by that point. The majority of mothers would be too worried about something like that happening again to take their children to the diner. It was amazing that there had been someone not only willing but eager to buy it with its tarnished reputation and all. He could only hope that he and Mary would somehow be able to build some semblance of a new life, if they could even call it that.

Suddenly the truck came to a stop, causing everything in the back of it (translation: Fredbear and Mary) to slide to the front with a metallic clang. Painfully. Despite his endoskeleton not having the proper sensors for it, he felt pain whenever some part of him was damaged in any way. It was actually quite useful for diagnosing problems with any of his systems.

"What was that about?" Tchin, who had not been affected by the sudden stop, said.

"We've probably arrived," Fredbear muttered, extracting himself and Mary from the pile of chairs and tables. Wondering if that was true, the reaper phased through the side of the truck to the outside.

With a bit of shouting from outside, the back of the van was opened up, and Fredbear could finally see the outside. What the men looking into the truck saw, however, was a robot bear that looked like a stuffed animal that had carelessly been thrown across a room.

"Shit, didn't that Bearson lady say to be careful?" one of them said, grating Fredbear's ears with his foul language choices.

"Yea, pea-brain, she did. I told you to tie the thing down," said the other, who climbed up into the truck and hauled Fredbear to a more comfortable position. Then he picked up Mary, who had been slumped in a similar position. "Bring the puppet in will you?"

"Fine," the first one said. Mary was passed off, much to the worry of Fredbear, and the man disappeared. It took a bit, but the other managed to hoist the much bigger yellow bear over his shoulder. Said enormous yellow bear put the barest amount of power to his motors to ease some of the weight from the man's shoulder. Which still didn't keep him from complaining.

"Damn bear is too heavy," he muttered. Offended, Fredbear took the power from his motors and redirected it to cause his voice box to emit a loud screeching noise, similar to microphone feedback. "Argh!" the man nearly dropped Fredbear in an attempt to cover his ears, but the screeching quickly died down. Fredbear caught a glimpse of Tchin outside with a wide smirk before he also left to go inside.

The man carrying Fredbear managed the rest of the way with no further incident, if a sore shoulder wasn't to be counted and placed the enormous bear down in the storage unit. The unit itself was mostly empty; there were a few tables and chairs in the corner and a cash register underneath, but that was about it. It was very roomy in his opinion, but that was probably because it wasn't filled all that much. Then the two men left, plunging the room into near total darkness. Fredbear took a second to shake himself out before getting up to look for Mary.

"Interesting place. It's a bit cramped, though," Tchin, who had already found a spot for himself to sit among the cluttered tables and chairs, looked on with an amused look on his face. "I've already found a spot for the little one to sleep." the Shinigami pointed to a small alcove between some chairs where Mary could be seen resting.

"At least we're still together," Fredbear replied, finding his own spot to sit. He looked down at himself, wondering what could possibly have been the reason for them all to end up like this, stuck in a strange place with an uncertain future.


	14. Bullying the Kid

Andy was having a very crappy first day back at school. Frankly, he was usually having a crappy day at school, but this day was particularly bad. He assumed it was because he'd been able to hide in his house from the bullies that were following him around like vultures for two whole weeks during Christmas vacation, and they wanted to make up for lost time. Still, it seemed like, for that one day, the whole universe had decided that it had a personal vendetta against him. He hoped it wouldn't last. Thankfully, it was the end of the day, and he usually did pretty well avoiding them outside.

"Hey look, it's the senior citizen," Crap. He'd forgotten to check behind himself. Andy kept walking, hoping that ignoring the bullies would make them leave him alone. No such luck. Someone grabbed him by the shoulder and roughly spun him around. Andy saw the sneering face of Randall, one of the bigger fifth graders, along with a few of his dumb friends.

"Hi Randall," Andy muttered, trying to get away. He could see his Daddy's car in the parking lot. If only he could just reach it. Randall held onto his shoulder tighter.

"Not so fast shrimp. We haven't seen you all day," the others closed in, effectively cutting off Andy's chance of escape. So much for making a break for it.

"Well, I was a bit busy…" Andy said nervously.

"No you weren't. You were hiding at the back of the classroom with your nose in one of your books all day," Randall pushed Andy against the wall.

"Leave me alone!" the smaller boy cried out.

"Yea right, freak. No normal person has white hair unless they're old. And you know what freaks get around here," Randall said. Andy nearly shot back that his hair wasn't white. It was just really light blonde, but the older boy grabbed the front of Andy's shirt just as a shadow fell over the group.

"And what would that be?" came a gruff voice from behind them. The bullies looked behind them, and Randall promptly dropped Andy at the sight of the person behind them.

"Uncle Val!" Andy shouted in happiness, able to tell which person was in charge by the cold glare that his family member was giving to the assembled bullies. Despite the fact that he knew his uncle was crazy (understatement of the year), he rushed forward and hid behind the tall man.

"He's your uncle?" Randall said fearfully, backing away. His buddies looked to him and then to Valentine and then back to him before scattering like little mice. A grin spread across Valentine's face but didn't quite reach his silver eyes. The cold glare, however, took on a slightly more sadistic glint.

"Yes, I am. Now what was that you were saying about freaks?" he growled.

"N-nothing m-mister," Randall continued to back away until he too ran off like the others.

"Aww. Now that wasn't any fun. I was looking forward to tormenting the little squirt," Valentine turned his gaze to Andy, who was still hiding behind him. "You get yourself into so much trouble shrimp."

"Why did you help me, then?" Andy had been subject several times to his uncle's feverish rants about how weakness should be purged and other crap like that. Usually it was balmed over by his father returning to his senses, but sometimes, it scared Andy. Not because his uncle made him afraid of those stronger than him but because his uncle made him fear being weaker than those around him. He'd hoped that his uncle would never see him being bullied, but it had really only been a matter of time. One way or another, Valentine found out everything.

"Your father," was the only explanation he got as Valentine turned to walk back towards the car. He stopped and turned his head to look at Andy when he realized that the boy hadn't started to follow yet. "Try hitting them back next time," he suggested.

"And how am I supposed to do that? They're bigger than me. Everyone's bigger than me," the youngster protested.

"It's not really about size, but if you're adamant about that, then the solution is plain and simple. I'll show you how to hit them back," the grin never left Valentine's face.

"You will?" Andy was taken aback. He wasn't used to all that much attention from his uncle normally, so that was unexpected.

"Sure, why not. You might be a puny little weakling now," that made Andy go red with with embarrassment, "but you have potential. I've seen how fierce you can get when you're really pissed off. You've just gotta be fierce other times too. Now come on. Jeremiah's gotta go to work soon, so we've gotta be there before he starts deciding that poking me with his needles might be a good idea."

Andy snickered slightly at that. While most people have unfounded fears in spiders or the dark or stuff like that, Andy's uncle had an unfounded fear in the sharp pointy objects commonly known as needles. Which was funny because Jeremy liked to dress up to go to Comic Con every year and usually made all of his own costumes, which involved a lot of sewing. So much so in fact that Valentine had banned Jeremy to the basement when doing so.

"Ok, Uncle Val," Andy said, following his uncle back to the car.


	15. Awakening

**A/N: I'm back! Isn't it so exciting? Anyway, I've returned to give thanks for more reviews to ACertainCrimsonFox and Phantom Thief Fee. I figured out how to make internet cookies, so I can give them to reviewers XD. One for Fox (::), and one for Phantom (::). Thanks guys! So for chapters with Mary in them, like this one, I especially want to know if I've messed up any of the italics for her telepathy, since this site doesn't like Google Docs formatting for some reason.**

Fredbear hummed as he worked to organize the various piles of clutter in the newer storage unit he and Mary had been moved to. Apparently the other one had been too small for everything that was needed for the new location. He had originally thought dying would give him a free pass from menial labor, but no, the humans didn't care enough to give him some room. Of course they really didn't know about the real him, but still. At least Alice had made it so they'd left him in free-roam mode instead of one of his programmed sequences. Going against those made his servos lock up, as he had found out when he had tried to save Mary, and he couldn't quite reach the switch on his endoskeleton that caused him to change modes. He also didn't really feel like animating himself with telekinesis, as that was difficult and often ended up going horribly wrong. So free roam mode was good.

A rustling sound coming from the corner made him look up. He thought that it might be Tchin getting up to do something but the Reaper was in the corner sharpening his scythe. It was a second before Fredbear realized what the noise had been. Mary was starting to stir. Which was odd. She wasn't supposed to yet. Not until the place was clean at least, so he could have time to figure things out.

 _Fredbear_? her voice filled his mind. That made him stop altogether. She definitely wasn't supposed to be able to do that yet. Fredbear got up and moved over to her.

"Mary. Are you alright?" he asked, being as quiet as possible. She'd gone through so much in one night. More than any ten year old should have to go through. Plus, there were humans on the outside of the unit, and he didn't want to be heard by them. Using telekinesis, Mary sat up and looked at him.

 _Where are we? What happened? I…_ she trailed off. A black cloud of emotion seemed to surround her as she remembered what had happened that night, contrasting sharply with her normally pure white aura. _Where is he?_

"I'm not sure that's such a good-"

 _Where is he? Tell me,_ she cut him off. He grabbed his head as a sharp pain shot through it. The light in his eyes began to dim ever so slightly. Through the pain, he could barely notice Tchin get up and walk slowly over, interest etched in his face.

"Mary, please. Stop it," he managed to growl. The storm of emotion surrounding her cleared a bit, and she drew back as she realized that she was hurting him somehow.

 _I- i'm sorry,_ the change in demeanour was almost immediate, and now she seemed to be more scared than angry. _I don't know what happened. How did I…_ she trailed off once more.

"It's fine, it's fine. Accidents happen. I'm alright," Fredbear said, putting his paw on her arm. She shied away from the touch, her anger towards her murderer forgotten and replaced by fear and confusion.

 _But why?_

"Because you're special, my little puppet master. You just need to learn how to control it rather than letting it control you," He pulled her into a strong hug, not letting her pull away this time. He wanted her to know that he was still her friend no matter what happened.

 _Ok. I'm sorry Fredbear. I'll try not to let it happen again. It's just…_ she quavered, scared of what she might do if something else happened.

"I know. What he did to you was horrible, but you can't dwell on it. He can't hurt you anymore. I promise," he looked at her in the eye. Mary nodded weakly, determined not to hurt him again. She would learn how to control what she could do, even if she couldn't understand it.

 _Thank you._ she buried her face in his chest.

"Right," Fredbear nodded. He turned to Tchin, who had sent his scythe back to his pocket world once he had been sure Fredbear wasn't in any danger.

"Hello little one," he crouched down to say hi.

 _Who are you?_ Mary asked.

"My name is Tchin. I'm a Reaper," he said crouching down to her level. "I'm here to help you." Despite his kind sounding words, Tchin briefly gave Fredbear a look that said he wouldn't be afraid to take Mary down if she got out of control. Fredbear rolled his eyes. There would be no more murdering of small children if he had anything to say about it.

"His job is usually to make sure people like you don't get trapped on Earth, so since you did get trapped, he's gotta help you find a way to move on," Fredbear explained, shooting a slight glare at Tchin for the look the Reaper had given.

With all the supposed danger from Mary's outburst gone, the three were able to settle down slightly. Tchin went back to sit in the corner while Mary and Fredbear played a rather awkward game of patty cake. It was strange, as Mary was still getting used to her new height, but she was learning quickly. Fredbear knew that she'd be able to control her movements completely before long. After that, her powers. But Fredbear knew he had to teach her one step at a time.

"You know, I used to be like you were," he said. The transition from living to ghost had been much easier for him, though. He'd died of old age, and then he'd chosen to stay because he wanted to continue to do what he loved. Entertaining children. And he hadn't even had to worry about hurting people, as he'd both come into his powers later and they weren't as strong as hers already seemed to be.

 _Alive?_

"Yes," he was startled as Mary moved backwards a little bit to look at him.

 _You are still alive… in here,_ she said, placing a small hand on his chest where his heart would be if he was still human. He placed his paw over her hand. If he could've smiled, he would have.

Somehow, just somehow. He would make this work. He had to. For her.


	16. Fun Time With Flying Balls

Moping somewhat in the darkness of the storage unit hid an ever so slightly possessed puppet. Or at least Mary thought the darkness hid her. What she didn't realize was that Fredbear could see through the darkness just as well as she could, if not better due to having more practice.

"Moping isn't going to help your situation much," the big bear said, poking Mary in the arm a few times. She looked up from her thoughts. From the concerned tone in his voice, Mary could tell that Fredbear knew she was thinking about her killer.

 _What else am I supposed to do? Play a game and pretend nothing happened?_ she grumbled.

"You're acting more like a broody teenager than a ten year old. I don't like that. I can deal with ten year olds," he said, hoping to get some sort of laugh. She just stared at him. "Oh, come on. I'll sing a song for you."

 _I'm not a little kid!_ Mary retorted indignantly. She crossed her arms and attempted to stare sternly at Fredbear, but her masked face being locked into a permanent smile ruined it for her.

"Actually, yes you are a little kid. I'll tell you what. I promised you that I'd show you how to use your powers properly. Now is a good time as any to try," he said, hoping that doing that would also lead to fewer accidents. That made her perk up a bit. She had been looking forward to learning for a few days, and she hoped that it would help stop any more accidents. Even better was the fact that Tchin was off working, so he couldn't bother them about Mary being a danger. Being trapped on Earth didn't exempt him from Reaper duties.

 _Yes please, yes please,_ came her reply.

"Alright. watch and learn," he levitated a small ball from what he assumed was going to be a ball pit over into his hand. Then he sent it to Mary.

 _How does it work?_ she asked eagerly, catching it in midair.

"Well, you're already using telekinesis! Just do what you do to move yourself," he explained. Her puppet body didn't have any kind of support. Fredbear didn't normally need to use his to lift himself, but Mary was doing it naturally.

 _Really? But I'm moving like I'd move before. Like psychic muscles I guess,_ she replied dubiously.

"That's exactly how it is. Like psychic muscles. If you don't work them out, you'll never get stronger," the old bear chuckled slightly at the analogy.

 _Oh. Ok then. I'll try,_ Mary stared at the ball, concentrating and imagining she was flexing some weird psychic muscles to pick up the ball. After only a few seconds, it began to hover slightly in the air.

"Great job! Now let's see if you can throw it at me," he stood up to give her a better target.

Only ten minutes later, Fredbear was regretting having suggested anything. Had he known it would end up with him running around the small space and dodging various flying objects, he would have tried to find some other way to cheer her up.

"Maybe it's time we do something other than telekinesis," he yelped, ducking underneath a large cabinet. Mary wasn't even particularly trying to hit him anymore, but she didn't seem to have very much fine control either. Everything kind of just floated around. Or crashed to the ground rather when she put it down. Fredbear was glad that the night guard in the place was a heavy sleeper.

 _Oops. Did I break something?_ Mary sounded like a kid who'd been caught dropping a vase in the living room.

"No, no. It's fine. I'll fix it later. Right now, I think, is time for a break," Fredbear sat down with his eyes closed, savoring the chance to rest. Even though his mechanical body couldn't feel fatigue or exhaustion, there was a mental aspect to relaxation that he'd never really understood as well when he was alive. It was nice. At least until he was hit in the head with a pebble sized object. A small giggle made its way across the room from where Mary was sitting.

"You know you could be using your powers for something other than bothering me," He muttered, opening one eye. She was sitting on the floor but got up when she saw him looking.

 _Nope,_ she said, plopping herself down in his lap.

"I give up," he grumbled, leaning back against the wall.

 _What do you give up?_ Mary asked, turning to face him.

"Oh nothing. It was just a joke. How about some fun now?" he said, tickling her under her arms. She giggled uncontrollably until she finally managed to get away, floating to the ceiling where he couldn't reach.

 _You're it,_ she said. Annoyingly, there was no way Fredbear could reach her, and that was just her plan. She would win a game of tag against him. Of course, Fredbear had other ideas. He climbed up onto the nearest large object, which happened to be a table and began to levitate it off of the floor. He didn't have as much raw power as Mary could already show, but he had more practice and better aim. He didn't dare stand up on it, as his balance wasn't the best, so he remained lying on his belly as the table rose.

 _Me and my big fat mouth,_ Mary said, darting to the other side of the room. Fredbear followed her, much more slowly, but she slipped into gaps between some of the more tightly packed together tables and chairs that she hadn't moved with her telekinesis. Fredbear let himself down to the ground with a big booming laugh.

"You win. I can't fit in there," he said, getting up off of the table. He felt rather ridiculous having done that, but it had been fun nonetheless.

 _But can't you lift them like you did yourself?_ Mary asked, extracting herself from the mess and standing up. It always unnerved Fredbear to see her standing like that, as he'd never realized just how tall the Marionette was while it was in the music box. At full height, Mary now stood all the way from floor to ceiling, which made Fredbear wonder why she was a marionette in the first place, strings and everything leading to a control bar that was currently tied to her back. It always made for a comical appearance, though, when she sat in his lap.

"Because I really don't want to make this place any more of a mess than it is. People are going to wonder if they ever decide to come visit," he explained to her. Mary lowered herself down to a sitting position while Fredbear set to work on cleaning up after her lesson. He didn't quite trust that she was good enough at her powers yet to help him with telekinesis, and her body was much weaker than his own, so she couldn't lift heavy objects.

He began to hum a version of the Toreador March that his diner had popularized while it was open, and Mary hummed too when she heard. What she was couldn't really be described as happy, but it was getting there. At least Fredbear hoped it was. Maybe, he could help her put the past behind them and forget the horrible things that had happened, especially once the new location was built.

Sadly, what you wish for is rarely what you end up getting.


	17. Job Interviews Galore

Liam stopped just outside of the new location for what was now going to be called Fredbear and Friends Pizzeria. Judging by the surprisingly large number of cars in the lot, he and Vince were not the only people applying for jobs. There had been an auspicious start to the day at least. Something funky had happened to the heating at Jeremy's college, so he was free to watch the kids. Liam was grateful for that. Vincent's children were even more energetic than he was.

"Gehen wir, Liam. Ze interfievs von't wait for us," Vince marched on ahead, grabbing Liam's arm on the way to pull him behind.

"Woah, I'm coming, I'm coming," Liam shouted as he was pulled inside of the building. The new restaurant was certainly much larger and more colorful than the old one and even had a small area that seemed to be reserved for an arcade and a counter labeled Prize Corner. Off to the side of the room, there were two hallways that probably led to the offices, bathrooms, kitchens and whatever other facilities the place might need. Otherwise, it was mostly empty with the exception of the booths to sit in.

"Bigger isn't it? Do you sink zey'll let us play ze arcade machines vhen zhey come in? Hov much do you sink ve'll get paid? Vill ve even get hired? Vat-"

"Please be quiet, V. It's too early in the morning for this," Liam muttered, hoping to god that no one would notice them. Sadly, it wasn't to be, as Vince's impressive height attracted the stares of a good number of people.

"But it's exciting. Ze original diner vas so much fun, und zis van vill be even better probably," Vincent gushed. But thankfully, he listened anyway up until they found a seat together apart from the rest of the arriving crowd, closer to the arcade area. Unfortunately, they ended up receiving more than one odd stare.

"Maybe we should move a bit closer to the rest of them," Liam muttered, ducking his head and pulling his collar up a bit to make himself less noticeable.

"Vy? You're alvays trying to avoid people," Vincent said, slightly confused sounding.

"I know, but people are going to wonder why us two are sitting together away from the rest of the group," Liam didn't know what was going on in anyone else's heads, and he didn't like that. They could be thinking anything, possibly about him. "What if someone told one of the new people that you like guys? It's not exactly an accepted thing..."

Vincent rolled his eyes at Liam. There wasn't anything to worry about in his opinion. "No van ozer zan you and Jeremy even knows zat. Plus, zhey're more likely to hear from your vorried babbling." He smiled at Liam in an attempt to calm his friend down.

Liam didn't reply, instead opting to try and look as small as possible. He could see a few people he already knew from the diner. Katie was there as well as as few of the waiters and kitchen staff. There was also a spikey haired girl who had a guitar for some reason. As the two waited for their turns, a woman could be seen from time to time calling out names. Each of the interviews before him seemed rather short in Liam's opinion. He adjusted his tie slightly so that it stopped feeling so constricting. It almost seemed like it was trying to choke him.

Time went on, and Liam became increasingly doubtful with each minute. What was probably only half an hour seemed like an eternity. There wasn't anything he could do to pass the time other than talking to Vincent, and that would be too noticeable. As if detecting Liam's nervous mood, Vincent sent a reassuring smile over to him.

"Liam Anderson," the woman finally called. Upon hearing his name, Liam nearly bolted for the hallway but managed to keep as calm as he could. He walked slowly across the room, trying not to think of how many people were probably staring at him. Finally, he made it to her. "Right this way." she led him to a door labeled 'Manager's Office' and opened the door. "He's here Mr. Fazzino."

Liam went in, muttering a quick thank you to the woman who'd led him in. As opposed to what he'd expected, the room was rather messy and disorganized. Hopefully, that meant the occupant wouldn't judge him as much.

"Hello, Mr. Anderson," the man behind the desk said, extending his hand to shake. "I'm Lawrence Fazzino, the new manager of Fredbear and Friends Pizzeria and possibly your new boss."

"H- hello," Liam shook the other man's hand weakly. He couldn't help but notice that his interviewer immediately wiped his hand on his shirt after pulling away. Were Liam's palms really that sweaty already? Trying to put it out of his mind, he sat down across from Mr. Fazzino.

"So, I see you want the night guard position. To start, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself," Mr. Fazzino suggested.

"O- ok then," Liam took a deep breath to try and calm himself, "Well, uh… obviously, my name is Liam. I graduated from high school just this June and I'm taking a bit of a year off before I go to college… er… really that's about it. There isn't much to me."

Mr. Fazzino nodded, "Why should we at Fazbear Entertainment hire you."

"Um, I might seem timid, but I'm a really hard worker, I'm always on time and I make good coffee," Liam was struggling not to rush through his words. Even though it would've shortened his time speaking, it wouldn't have left a very good impression of him. Maybe he shouldn't have said about the coffee. It was a rather dumb thing to mention at an interview.

His answer, however, was met with a large grin. "Good coffee, eh? I like you already, Liam. Now, I already know why you left your previous job, and I'm assuming you've never been a night guard, so I'm gonna ask you whether you prefer to work alone or on a team."

"Alone," Liam replied rather quickly. He pulled on his collar again to try and get some more air, but it didn't really work all that well.

"Ok then. What are your career goals?"

"Well... I want to be a police officer eventually," Liam said. Although he never typically told that to anyone of his own volition, it was easier than thinking of something different on the spot. They'd all tell him to pick something more realistic, but Mr. Fazzino merely smiled at him.

"Ok. Last couple of questions. What do you feel are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?" the man said. Liam relaxed ever so slightly, though he was still extremely keyed up. It was almost over. Still, this was probably the most nerve wracking to answer. It was the make or break question.

"Well, my greatest strength is my perceptiveness. I never miss a thing," Liam began. Which was true. He had even noticed the black and red cat hairs covering Mr. Fazzino's black suit. He must've had at least two cats. "But my weakness is that I don't do well socially. Talking to people is rather hard for me." He managed to finish the sentence. Only a few more minutes and he was free.

"Ok then. One final question as you leave. If you were an animal, what would you be?" Mr. Fazzino grinned. Liam remembered when Alice had hired him at the diner. She'd asked a similarly irrelevant question at the end. Something about better knowing reactions and who he was as a person.

"An owl," he said finally, hoping he'd picked right. Picking something too timid would make him seem weak, but something that didn't fit his personality at all would be flat out lying. The owl seemed to be a happy medium.

"Ok then. Be here tomorrow and the day after at noon exactly. After that, I'll make my final decisions. The weeks after if you get picked will be job training, you got that? We won't technically be open for a few months. Just some legal things to work through," Mr. Fazzino stated.

Getting up rather quickly, Liam nodded at the statement. "Th- thank you Sir," he managed to stammer out before turning to go out the door. Walking out as quickly as he could, Liam let out a breath as soon as the door was shut behind him. He walked back to the booth he'd sat in earlier as the lady checked a list.

"Vincent Fitzgerald!" she called out. Vincent got up and passed Liam, giving the teen a quick smile as he went past.

"You vill get it," Vince assured him as the two split up again. Trying his best to take it to heart, Liam sat down again. Then he sunk down as low as he could without hiding under the table. Although, the longer he waited, the more that seemed like a good idea. But others would probably see him go under and judge him for it. He didn't want anyone to think he was stupid or idiotic or…

"Hey, dude," someone talking snapped him out of his thoughts. He looked over to see the spikey haired girl with the guitar standing incredibly close to him.

"Er… uh… please move… you're… uh… in my personal space," he moved over slightly to put some space between himself and her only to have her sit in the empty spot he left. She grinned, resting the guitar against the edge of the table.

"What is this personal space you speak of? My name is Kris by the way. Short for Krystal. I'm trying for a job as a performer," she held out her hand to shake, but the close proximity made it too hard for Liam to take it. Instead, he attempted to move further away, pressing himself up to the inside wall.

"Liam," he muttered in response. By looking away and crossing his arms tightly, Liam tried to get the message across that he didn't really want to talk. She was extremely in his face, and he wasn't comfortable. Annoyingly she didn't seem to get it.

"Hey. You. That's kinda rude, you know," Kris said loudly, poking him in the arm. Great. She thought he was rude. What if she started to think worse of him? By not talking, he'd give her more of an impression of rudeness, but he didn't want to say anything stupid. In the end he settled for silence, which he deemed the lesser of the two evils. Kris rolled her eyes. "Fine then. I'll just sit here poking you until your tall friend comes back."

And that's exactly what she did for the eleven minutes and forty two seconds it took for Vince to come out. She sat there and poked him repeatedly despite the fact the he really wanted her to go away. By the five minute mark, he'd been debating crying. In the end, though, that would have probably been a horrible idea.

"Bist du in Ordnung?" Liam heard Vincent coming up behind him and looked up to see the taller man coming over.

"Not really," he muttered, attempting to send a glare at Kris. In reality, he probably looked terrified. Not that it did him any good. The guitarist wouldn't budge.

"So you're his friend? He's cute. Can I keep him?" Kris, just like before, was rather loud and imposing. It made Liam wonder whether or not she was actually joking.

"Nein. He is mine," Vince stuck his tongue out at her in a defiant gesture. Liam went extremely red at the statement but didn't have the courage to interject. He'd just end up messing up or stuttering.

"Awwwwwww. Ok then. Sorry cutie," she poked Liam again, causing him to go red.

"I'm Vince," Vince held his hand out in greeting.

"Kris," the girl shook it. "What are you two trying for? I wanna scope out my competition early."

"Security. Bos of us," Vince pointed to himself and Liam. Vince was only trying to get a security job because he wanted to be in the same division as Liam. They would never have the same work hours, so Vince would always have a babysitter for the kids.

"L- look, we have to go… er… I have an, uh, doctor appointment. Yea. That," Liam was just glad he could come up with a good excuse. A strange look was sent his way by Vincent, but the other man knew when to zip it.

"Right. Can you let him out please?" Vincent gave his puppy dog eyes. Liam had been told they were impossible to resist. He had no clue why, but that was mostly because he'd know Vince since they were kids.

"Alright then," she got up grinning. "I hope we all get hired. It would be nice to see you guys again." she grabbed her guitar and made her way to the other side of the room to where she was sitting before.

"Thanks for the save, V," Liam got up as well, eager to leave the place. This was also part of the reason he'd wanted security guard for his job. He wouldn't really have to interact with people unless there was a problem.

"Bitte," Vince pulled Liam into a hug before marching off. "Nov let's get you to your 'doctor appointment'."


End file.
